Trump vs. Jeff Bezos and Amazon: It’s not business, it’s personal

Over the weekend, Donald Trump launched another round of attacks against e-commerce provider Amazon.com—something he’s been doing since the GOP primaries—and it reminded me of a quote from The Godfather.

In a scene where the “family” is considering how to retaliate against a rival gang and a corrupt cop following their attempt to assassinate Don Vito Corleone, Michael Corleone volunteers to kill their enemies. Despite his reluctance to get involved in the family business, and after his brother Sonny questions his motivations, Michael assures him:

Amazon has been on Trump’s enemies list because CEO Jeff Bezos is also the owner of one of Trump’s so-called fake news sites, the Washington Post. During the campaign, Trump accused “the owners of Amazon” of using the Post as a political tool to lobby politicians to go easy on the internet giant. The accusation followed a decision by the Trump campaign to revoke the press credentials of the Washington Post after some unfavorable coverage. With credentials revoked, the paper was prohibited from covering Trump’s campaign.

While we are on the subject, it is reported that the U.S. Post Office will lose $1.50 on average for each package it delivers for Amazon. That amounts to Billions of Dollars. The Failing N.Y. Times reports that “the size of the company’s lobbying staff has ballooned,” and that…

…does not include the Fake Washington Post, which is used as a “lobbyist” and should so REGISTER. If the P.O. “increased its parcel rates, Amazon’s shipping costs would rise by $2.6 Billion.” This Post Office scam must stop. Amazon must pay real costs (and taxes) now!

One more thing. More than likely, Trump is throwing taxes into the mix as another way to advance his plans for an internet sales tax.

Ironically, Trump’s accusation that Bezos is using the Washington Post to benefit Amazon is much like the Emoluments Clause lawsuit Trump is facing. A federal judge recently ruled that the suit filed by the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia accusing Trump of using the presidency to personally and financially benefit from the official business being done at this Washington DC hotel can go forward.

Where the Emoluments Clause lawsuit will end up is anyone’s guess, but based on Trump’s track record everybody involved in the case should be on the lookout because, in Donald Trump’s version of The Godfather, it’s not business, it’s personal.

As predicted, Trump offers DACA amnesty in exchange for border wall

Throughout Trump’s first two years in office, I’ve been one of only a handful of conservative voices shouting from the rooftops that the New York liberal’s promise to fix America’s out-of-control illegal immigration problem was nothing but a lie.

As a candidate, Trump promised to build a “big beautiful powerful wall” on our southern border at Mexico’s expense, and he promised to overturn Obama’s unconstitutional Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive order that allowed illegals to stay in America indefinitely. Unfortunately, the “wall” has become an “artistically designed” barrier of some sort funded by the U.S. taxpayer, and DACA is not only still in effect, it’s on its way to becoming permanent.

While the reality of Trump’s broken promises dealing with illegal immigration have been crystal clear to those not drinking the orange Kool-Aid, his inevitable betrayal on the issue has been brought sharply into focus since last summer.

In June 2018, Paul Ryan proposed a plan that would allow DREAMers to legally stay in the country and be put on the pathway to citizenship in exchange for $23 billion for building a border wall.

Following their September 2018 budget betraying funding everything from Planned Parenthood to DACA and sanctuary cities, rumors began spreading around Washington that Trump was ready to cut an immigration deal with Democrats in light of the reality that the Democrats were about to retake the House in the midterms.

The Democrats did retake the House, and in the days since their victory, Trump and the GOP have been laying the foundation for their inevitable immigration betrayal. With the help of Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, trading DACA amnesty for a border wall is now the official position of the Trump administration and the GOP-controlled Senate.

Three years? I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, but that’s just enough time to kick the can down the road until after his 2020 election … assuming there is one. And just in case there are any doubts about the motivation behind this three-year timeframe, consider this: Mitch McConnell, who has refused to let the Senate vote on the shutdown, has endorsed Trump’s offer and will hold vote on it this week.

I commend @POTUS for his leadership in proposing this bold solution to reopen the government, secure the border, and take bipartisan steps toward addressing current immigration issues.My full statement: https://t.co/3lfItBQzEC

Related

How ‘Progressives’ are a small but vocal political minority

The data shows that most people are in the rational majority while the Left is a small but vocal minority.

A recent video from Daisy Cousens makes the very important point that far-Left ‘progressives’ are an extremely vocal minority that dominates the media, culture and government indoctrination centres. Even though they are only 8% of the population, they take on the false pretense of representing everyone else.

Equally important is the fact that the data from the Hidden Tribes Study shows that the people trying to conserve Liberty on the Right have a lot more in common with the exhausted middle. This majority on one side of the issues, while the small minority of the far-Left on the other. As she points out, this is not exactly a ringing endorsement of the national socialist Utopia the Left would like to force on the rest of us.

This is a short description of the 7 groups identified in the study:

Progressive Activists (8 percent of the population) are deeply concerned with issues concerning equity, fairness, and America’s direction today. They tend to be more secular, cosmopolitan, and highly engaged with social media.

Traditional Liberals (11 percent of the population) tend to be cautious, rational, and idealistic. They value tolerance and compromise. They place great faith in institutions.

Passive Liberals (15 percent of the population) tend to feel isolated from their communities. They are insecure in their beliefs and try to avoid political conversations. They have a fatalistic view of politics and feel that the circumstances of their lives are beyond their control.

The Politically Disengaged (26 percent of the population) are untrusting, suspicious about external threats, conspiratorially minded, and pessimistic about progress. They tend to be patriotic yet detached from politics.

Moderates (15 percent of the population) are engaged in their communities, well informed, and civic-minded. Their faith is often an important part of their lives. They shy away from extremism of any sort.

Traditional Conservatives (19 percent of the population) tend to be religious, patriotic, and highly moralistic. They believe deeply in personal responsibility and self-reliance.

Devoted Conservatives (6 percent of the population) are deeply engaged with politics and hold strident, uncompromising views. They feel that America is embattled, and they perceive themselves as the last defenders of traditional values that are under threat.

The polarization of opinion between the opposing ends of the spectrum is very clear from the issues that different groups prioritize:
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After the issue of poor leadership, Progressive Activists rank climate change (47%) and economic inequality (42%) next, both issues that rank high on the liberal agenda. These are both considerably higher than the average (18% and 12%, respectively).

While the majority Conservatives, Moderates and Liberals have their own priorities. They don’t explain how someone favourable to individual rights and freedoms would naturally buy into the strict controls on Liberty that go along with the authoritarian Left’s climate change agenda. Or that the forced wealth redistribution that would have to be a part of Leftists plans to address the economic inequality would square with individual Liberty.

The Politically Disengaged group resemble the Conservatives in their focus on jobs (56%), immigration (60%) and terrorism (59%).

[Our emphasis]

This is how we are in the majority, the Politically Disengaged resembling Conservatives on many important issues.

A very vocal minority is still a minority

While the majority of the country may quibble over some issues, they are still supporters of Liberty. The far-Left, socialist minority is in a world of it’s own, working actively against our rights and freedoms while hiding behind the Liberal label. Please take note of this when considering those who like to throw Liberals into the Leftist camp, incongruously conflating both sides as the same.

The Takeaway

Most people want to be free from the control of others. Most people want to be able to defend themselves and speak freely without constraint. Most people want to keep their earnings and property. This is the rational and largely silent majority that would just like to live their lives in peace.

Contrast this with the far-Left minority that preaches collectivism and control. People who openly want to banish what they deem to be ‘Hate- speech,’ ‘Assault weapons,’ the presumption of innocence and due process. It’s a small group obsessed with political power and denigrating freedom with far too many false labels.

Related

Kevin McCarthy doles out political payback against conservatives

When he was still in Congress, John Boehner was a master at selling out conservative values to Barack Obama’s agenda, and he routinely did all he could to silence conservatives who dared to oppose him or the Republican Party.

Boehner’s capitulating cowardice in favor of Obama and the Democrats was so blatant that there was an attempt in 2014 to kick his progressive posterior to the curb as House Speaker, an attempt that failed in large part due to retaliatory threats leveled against those who dared to vote against his re-election for the job.

When another attempt to replace Boehner as Speaker started picking up steam in 2015, he not only re-issued his threats, but he picked up the endorsements of Democrats who were concerned that a TEA Party Republican might replace him.

When Boehner eventually resigned as Speaker late in 2015, Republicans settled on Paul Ryan, the man who reminded America of the song “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who — meet the new boss, same as the old boss. However, before Ryan, there was another Boehner clone being considered for the job, Rep.Kevin McCarthy, the current minority leader after the Democrats retook the House in the 2018 midterm.

McCarthy was rejected in 2015 because he was too close to Boehner, and he was involved in Boehner’s personal vendetta against TEA Party and other conservative Republicans, along with being a participant in Boehner’s five-year sellout to Obama’s agenda.

McCarthy and his partners in crime on the Republican Steering Committee began taking out their revenge by removing Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) from the Armed Services Committee, and there will likely be more suffering Hice’s fate.

Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows — notice his name wasn’t listed above — told The Hill.com that “removing any member from a committee solely because they voted according to their constituents’ wishes is viewed very poorly by the general public and is the kind of punishment politics that the American people hate.”

I don’t feel all that sorry over the plight of many on the Freedom Caucus. Having abandoned conservatism for Trumpservatism, people like Meadows have lost all credibility.

McCarthy’s deeds simply prove what we’ve known for many years now, the Republican Party is no longer the home of conservatives, and the sooner we realize that, the better.